-!MRP / MRP II / ERP / ERM - Confusing Terms and Definitions for a Murky Alphabet Soup. 

-Imagine traveling down a road and you come to a sign for the town called Burp. Finding the name a little strange you take a mental note of it. In the future discussions with your friends and co-workers you often refer to this town. Your friends and co-workers get a little puzzled when you mention Burp, but they never say anything. Several years later, you see a newspaper article about the town that you had passed through. The article tells the story about how a road maintenance worker used a letter B. , instead of a letter M. , when making a new road sign after the town of Murp (the real name) acquired several new subdivisions. The maintenance shop ran completely out of letter M. 's so he used a letter B. as a humorous substitute for the name Murp. Eventually the sign changed back to Murp, but the name stuck as Burp for thousands of travelers passing through. 

-Those of us on the journey to support, maintain, and use modern-day ERP systems, have found similar road signs in our travels. Some of the road signs that have caused some confusion over the years include: MRP, MRP II, ERP, and more recently: ERM. A graphical depiction of the evolution of modern-day ERP systems is shown in Figure 1. The earlier research in material requirements planning and related topics focused on four fundamental areas. These included: economic order quantity (EOQ), safety stock, bill of materials processing (BOMP), and work order management. These served as the construction cornerstones for emerging MRP systems to follow in the mid 1960s . These cornerstones had been in practice throughout industry since the turn of the century. What was the turning point in the mid 1960s that allowed these cornerstones to emerge into one system called MRP? The answer: the computer. The four acronyms covered in this article include: 

-MRP: Material Requirements Planning  

-MRP II: Manufacturing Resource Planning  

-  

-ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning  

-ERM: Enterprise Resource Management 

-Remember BRP? It stands for: Business Resource Planning. When BRP came out in the early 90s , it really looked like it was going to stick. It fit nicely with business process reengineering. BRP did not last long. At about the same time ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) came to age. Practitioners actively working with planning systems and keeping abreast of the changes, saw ERP as exactly the same thing as MRP II. The only difference was that the name had changed. 

-Some practitioners found this definition a little confusing. Whether talking about MRP II or ERP, these business planning tools may or may not include capabilities such as fourth generation language or relational databases. Technology is important, but it should not dominate the definition of an ERP system. A definition of an ERP system should include the functional silos needed to operate most businesses. Some of these business silos include: accounting, manufacturing, distribution, purchasing, sales, inventory, quality, etc.. 

-How does a company? s use of a software planning tool determine if it is ERM or as ERP? If a company uses a software package for the purpose of replacing a legacy system without concern of how it will integrate with functional activities, then the software works as an ERP system. If a company uses an ERP system with the intention of using the ERP system to support and integrate with the various activities of the various modules, throughout the enterprise, then an ERM solution will be found. 

-The definition of an ERM system: ERM standing for Enterprise Resource Management, is a complete enterprise wide business solution that consists of an ERP system and functional activities occurring within each module of, and around, the ERP system. The ERP system consists of software support modules such as: marketing and sales, field service, product design and development, production and inventory control, procurement, distribution, industrial facilities management, process design and development, manufacturing, quality, human resources, finance and accounting, and information services. The functional activities occurring within each module consists of: management, decisions, training, documentation, communication, people, etc.. The ERP modules and functional activities must exist in harmony to become an ERM solution. The integration/interface points of the ERP system bind the entire ERM solution together. 

-The ERM model is not a passing fad. The ERM model has existed since the mid 1970? s, and was clearly recognized, but never received a formal definition. As long as there are companies that use ERP systems and perform activities within functional modules, the ERM model will exist. Whether or not the term ERM will become another fatality like BRP is yet to be seen. With proper education and nurturing, practitioners and educators will be able to avoid confusion that occurred with MRP and the confusing definitions of ERP systems.